The Malleus Maleficarum
by SoneAnna
Summary: They were both called saints, but one always had something to say about the legitimacy of the other. Such behavior wasn't befitting a of a saint, be they a nun or a prince.
1. Suspicion

For days on end, endless thumping noises echoed throughout the halls of the Myouren Temple. On Monday and Tuesday, it was of no grave consequence. The followers came and left as they always did, the sounds of feet scattering throughout the halls at least somewhat drowning out the bumps. Many approached Byakuren about it at first, but the nun quickly brushed them off as a matter she herself would soon handle. And bless her, she tried. She enacted numerous barriers and wards around her temple, in a desperate attempt to muffle the life out of whoever was disturbing her peace.

After it became clear that regular magic could not stop what she feared, Byakuren relayed her troubles to the one she knew would have experience in the area: Nue.

Byakuren did not speak to Nue much, and vice versa. So the shapeshifter was extremely surprised to hear the nun calling to her one morning, asking if she would kindly come down from the roof and inside for a cup of tea.

"What's this about, Hijiri?" Nue asked, settling into her chair and poking at her cup with a tentative finger.

Byakuren's normally cheery smile sobered up quickly, giving way to a face of grim resignation. "It's her."

"Her?"

"The noises we've been hearing, Nue-san. It's _her_."

Nue's eyes widened. There could only be one person this was about. Because there was only one person Byakuren ever talked about with such a solemn face (not even her younger brother, no, Myouren was remembered with a sad smile) and Nue knew she was trouble by default.

"Are you positive? We can't have false alarms..."

"I instructed Moriya-san and Yasaka-san to place the temple where it is for a very good reason. I needed to keep an eye on her," she said quietly, staring down at the liquid in her cup being carelessly bounced around by the noises afoot. "She's here, below us, below the graveyard. And she's waking up, Nue-san."

Nue bit her lip. "I'll do whatever I can." She was usually neutral in the temple's business, bouncing around and scaring the new recruits...but this was a case that needed handling.

"I'd like you to call in your tanuki friend, what was her name... Mamizou-san, correct?"

She nodded, and Byakuren stood up.

"Please alert her to trouble at once. And meanwhile, tell none of the others about this. I don't wish to cause manic alarm."

* * *

"Anesan..."

"Yes, dear?"

"What...what's going on?"

Byakuren gave Kyouko her best smile. Nue had set out for Sado the day before, and Byakuren had settled back into the pattern of trying to keep her guests and students calm while simultaneously trying to quiet the noises below. That day, however, was not in Byakuren's favor-the noises had gotten louder, and with that they'd attained a relatively high amount of seismic power. She had tried to settle down for her morning cup of tea like usual, but found it hard to concentrate while being unceremoniously flung up into the air every six seconds. At least it was within her power to levitate the table and cup along with her. Kyouko chose to rise and fall in tandem with the bounces, though both were surprised that the temple foundation was still standing.

Up.

"Nothing for you to worry about, okay?"

Down.

"But anesan...I don't think it's normal for the temple to do this...unless it's bounced around in the past. Has it?"

Up.

"Well, it did used to be a sailing ship. Perhaps you can go ask Senchou-san about that?"

Down.

Luckily for Byakuren, Kyouko's attention span wasn't quite fully developed, and the little yamabiko's face lit up as she scurried off to find her dear captain. Byakuren mentally apologized to Murasa for sending Kyouko to her yet again, but in those past few days, she had been the nun's savior in keeping the little girl busy and out of her hair. Normally she'd be more than okay with having Kyouko tag along while she performed her duties, but she was yet another person Byakuren didn't want to involve in the nasty business of a certain resurrecting Taoist.

It was later, however, that Murasa chose to pay Byakuren a visit.

The thumps had calmed down for the moment, thinning to merely annoying sounds of racket from a basement. Murasa leaned in the doorway to Byakuren's room, an unusual frown plastered on her pale face. "Hey? Byakuren-san?"

The nun rose up from her pile of blankets very slowly, previously attempting to get rid of the incessant headache she managed to get from the table-hopping. This plan was shattered of course, because it was Murasa-the one person that could wake Byakuren up with no provocation and get away with it. "Yes?" she called, shielding her eyes from the hallway light.

"What's been goin' on lately, huh?" Before Byakuren could protest, Murasa put up her hand. "I'm not a sac o' bricks, yanno. I can see there's somethin' up. An' you can tell me, right?" She knelt down, propping her chin up with her palms.

Byakuren sighed. She didn't like keeping secrets from Murasa of all people. But at the same time, she couldn't let this all spill out after she'd tried so hard to make sure there was no trouble.

"I am...having trouble with someone."

"Ffft. Well, obviously. I mean the specifics."

She opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out.

"Byakuren-san...?"

Byakuren fiddled her fingers awkwardly.

"Is it that Shotoku lady?" Murasa asked, pointing a finger decisively. "I knew she was givin' you trouble back then, but I thought she went and got herself comatose by drinkin' mercury or somethin' asinine like that."

"Suspended animation," Byakuren said. "It's similar to a comatose state, but you are completely aware of the time passing." She paused. "And it seems her suspension won't hold for much longer. The shaking, I believe it's the buildup of divine spirits beneath us, wanting to get out."

"I had a feelin', Byakuren-san," she said. "You got a plan for all this?"

"In a way...it was more of a preventative measure, but...I can't do much more 'preventing' it seems."

Murasa blinked a few times, looking over her shoulder at the last few scampering youkai heading to their bedrooms. "You'll think 'a somethin'. You always do."


	2. The Dead Nirvana Hermits

It was dark.

But everything had been dark, and for the longest time.

She was not awake, no, that would have been the biggest torture of her existence.

_hey_

_wake up, will you?_

_wake up . . ._

Her name was Miko. Kamitsumiya no Umayado no Toyosatomimi no Mikoto.

She wasn't sure how long it had been since she first fell asleep. More than a regular night, she was sure, but how long...

**how long**

Decades. Centuries. Over a thousand years, and then some. She'd never intended for it to be this long, not even in a humorous manner. She'd had Futo test it out first, for a reason, _for a reason_. She was safe. It was safe. Everything was safe and went smoothly.

So what happened to her? What had gone wrong in her seemingly perfected process?

**perfection**

But it obviously wasn't perfect, even then, if she could slowly feel herself waking up from the dreams she floated in and out of for the past thousand years. It was like seeing the morning sun rise through the cracks of the curtain in her bedroom, being prodded to wake up and prepare for the day. Slowly, inch by inch, her waking mind returned to its former glory.

The first thing that crossed her mind was "what happened?" If it had been longer than a handful of years at best, the world had to have changed without her and her influence. Was the nation still being enraptured by a ridiculous Buddhism fad? Did her family still hold power? Where were Futo and Tojiko, and Seiga? For that matter, what had Seiga done all these years? She was a hermit, if Miko remembered correctly. Hermits had their powers, their contractual silliness. Her gut told her not to worry about the woman, to put her focus on her two other comrades.

And, if things were clearer, herself.

And then it got white

h o t

What was going on now-?

* * *

"At last! I breathe fresh air once again!"

The girl named Mononobe no Futo took a tentative step outside of her coffin...and frowned when she realized that the air was not, indeed, fresh. It was as stale as it had always been, for the past one thousand years. She folded her arms, and gazed around, floating listlessly in the large space around her. Where were the others? Miko? Was she still asleep?

And what became of Tojiko? If anything, Tojiko would be furious with her. They might have once been on mildly friendly terms, but after The Incident, Futo was positive she'd get zapped into February 33rd if Tojiko managed to find her again.

She shuddered at the thought, and tried to concentrate on something different.

"Clearly, I must make do with the process of emptying my mind of needless thoughts!" she proclaimed as loudly as ever, throwing up her hands in a gesture of joy. "And onwards I shall march...!" A normal person would at least be courteous of her sleeping teammates. Futo, however, was not a normal person. She never was, and she certainly never would be, even by standard definitions of normal, her shikaisen body not withstanding. Miko always did scold her for screaming every word that came out of her mouth, being overly touchy-feely with her comrades, and setting on fire the things that frightened her.

It was, however, one of the few things that managed to stun Futo into silence when she found she could not make her way out of the mysterious gaping space around her. There were no doors, no exits, no pathways, nothing at all except for Futo herself, and the casket she'd crawled out of.

"Pray, what is this sorcery?" Futo fell quiet. Sorcery? Well, okay, probably not the best choice of words, considering the things she practiced. Abomination? No, that wasn't right either, she knew a lot of people who would willingly call her an abomination for what she had become. Trickery. Trickery was the better word.

"Who practices this trickery on me?"

But there was no answer, no sound in response except the echo of her own voice against the non-existent walls. Futo gazed at her surroundings once more. Was this what floating in outer space felt like? Being in Makai, she wondered? She'd heard many stories about that dimension, from the humans in the villages, and it had all sounded quite frightening. Had their mausoleum been transported to Makai after its sealing? What a ghastly thought.

_ghastly, ghastly, ghastly_

Of course, wasn't everything she was bound to experience some degree of 'ghastly'?

. . .

And for the thirtieth time that passing week, Mononobe no Futo gracefully slipped back into the realm of unconsciousness. Her mind was an oddly active one, repeating the same hallucinations of escaping into an empty void of nothingness ad nauseam. Of course, she remembered nothing. Of course, she suspected nothing. Of course, she did nothing productive except shriek into the darkness.

Except for that one time. That one special time, wherein Miko's suddenly aware mind was racing at an equal pace.

The rapture was coming.

**Rumble, rumble.**

Something was shifting. Something was snapping, breaking, exploding into several billion small pieces. The binds over her arms were broken, released, and she was able to take deep breaths again...or was it just another dream?

And then there was light.

* * *

It was exactly at 1:36 AM that morning that Byakuren was woken up by someone shaking her vigorously. The woman was noted for her ability to sleep through practically _anything_. Probably a by-product of her discipline and training, they concluded, but in reality it was all only to blame on her tendency to get easily distracted, even in sleep. One sheep, two sheep...

"Byakuren-san! Byakuren-san, wake up!"

Three sheep...

"_Byakuren_!"

The witch's eyelids delicately fluttered open. Above her stood the scrawny figure of a girl in a sailor's outfit. Her soggy hair dripped down onto the blanket that covered the witch, her normally pale cheeks flushed with anxiety.

"Senchou...mm...it's not nice to sink ships..." Byakuren mumbled, rolling over and closing her eyes once more. "Don't...don't tell campfire stories of that cruise liner again...scaring the children...not...good..."

That only prompted Murasa to shake harder, however. "Byakuren! You needa wake up right now! They're flooding out!" Without hesitation, she pulled Byakuren up into a sitting position, swiping the violet locks out of the witch's face.

Byakuren blinked, her words coming out slow and slurred, still half engaged in her dreams. "Now what have I _told_ you about flooding the-"

"That's not what I mean! Look, look!"

Byakuren yawned, rubbing her eyes. "Then what? What is so urgent, dear?"

"Just...just stand up! Look outside!"

With a helping hand from Murasa, Byakuren managed to heave herself to her feet, hobbling to the doorway. And almost fell to her knees at the sight before her.

It was only once in a blue moon that the entire temple was awake and in one place at the same time, but tonight was one of those nights. For the second Byakuren stepped out of her sleeping quarters, she bumped into the back of Kyouko, huddled around the deck's railing with a handful of others. More scampered along the deck itself, and more still were in the surrounding yard. It was as if a festival had come and moved itself into the grounds while Byakuren was asleep.

"Anesan!" the yamabiko squealed, turning around from her post, situating herself on the railing. "You're up!"

Byakuren looked from Murasa, to Kyouko, and back. Her mouth hung open dumbly, speechless.

"What is..."

The entire yard was flooded with light. She would have been forgiven in thinking it was a lantern fest, at first, by the way the darkness was shut away, and faces illuminated.

Divine spirits.

No, not even that. Byakuren could tell they weren't divine in the slightest, from the auras they projected, from the way they dipped and dived _just_ out of the grasp of the children trying to chase them. Yokurei, the greedy, and zokurei, the vulgar.

Kyouko clapped her hands excitedly. "Ichi-nee called them shinrei. Is that true? Are they spirits, aneesan?"

Byakuren, however, could not answer. She briefly glanced at Murasa, before flying out of view and taking a stance on the temple's roof. The ghost girl followed suit, and Byakuren turned to her once more.

"Find Ichirin-chan and Shou-san. Have them round everyone up, please." Before she could see Murasa's reaction, she turned back towards the mass below her. Most were too preoccupied with the sights around them to observe their leader standing on a roof in her dressing robes.

Without missing a beat, she then loudly proclaimed, "Everyone please head back to their rooms! Instantly! This is not a matter to be trifling with!"

She had no more time to beat around the bush, to lull them all into the false state of security she'd tried to make before.

The clock was ticking.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** I initially started writing this before Symposium of Post-Mysticism was published and translated, so I apologize for the inaccuracies in the first chapter (turns out Byakuren didn't know Nue went out to find Mamizou, oops...). I'll be using this to take a few creative liberties in the storytelling process, meaning, ldjfhsg OOPS I'd been planning on making this closer to canon than how it seems to be turning out. :c_


	3. Trust Me

After several moments of chaos (well-founded chaos, as Byakuren did not yell or become panicked often), the residents of the Myouren temple managed to calm down once more. Byakuren ushered them back to their sleeping quarters like an assembly line worker, her hands moving methodically and her normally comforting and sincere voice spitting out flat reassurances.

By the time everyone had gone back to sleep, nearly two hours had passed. Byakuren herself, however, was anything but tired, despite being woken up in the middle of the night. Her breath came out in halted puffs, and she noticed her hands were shaking. Instead of pitifully staring at the ceiling above her, forcing her eyes shut and praying sleep would come, she decided to stop trying. Byakuren dressed herself quickly, fiddling with the straps on her dress. Now was one of the few recurring times that she internally scolded herself for wearing such a complicated outfit. Her hands were much too unsteady to secure the ribbons around her arms and on her legs. With a sigh, she tucked her shoes back into the corner, and stepped out onto the early morning barefoot.

Her sleeves, unrestrained by their usual straps, billowed in the window. It felt a bit chilly outside, but the cold was nice. It was almost like a slap in the face, the kind one needed when they dissolved into hysterics. Which was good, because the spirits hadn't disappeared from the yard. They bobbed around just as they did earlier, almost tauntingly, reminding Byakuren of what was to come and what she failed to prevent.

_What are you going to do about it?_

Running her fingers through her hair, she took a seat on the edge of the porch surrounding the building. Her mind raced through a million different topics. She half-heartedly wondered when Nue would be returning from Sado, and then remembered she'd only left a few days ago. The trip was fairly long, she knew. It would take her at least four or five more days to get back with her tanuki friend in tow. Without a second thought, she clasped her hands together and began fiercely muttering a sutra (or was it a prayer?) in near desperation. She did not feel someone creeping up next to her.

When her voice faded, Murasa's rang out. "Byakuren-san, hey..."

Unaware of the ghost suddenly beside her, Byakuren let out a shrill yelp of surprise, almost tumbling backwards.

Murasa put her hands up. "Ah, sorry, sorry! I didn't mean t'sneak up on ya."

The witch let out a small of sigh of relief, and waved her hand dismissively. "It's fine."

Murasa frowned, and crossed her arms. Without a word, she plopped down next to Byakuren, and peered at her curiously. "Why're you still awake?"

Byakuren shrugged, trying to wipe the pained look off her face. "I could not bring myself to fall asleep is all."

"Heh. Well. Not like it's gonna do ya any harm to stay up," Murasa said.

Byakuren considered this. None of them, herself, Shou, Murasa, Ichirin, Nazrin, Nue, Kogasa, Kyouko, or the youkai residents who stayed around from time to time, even really needed sleep. Such were the bodies of youkai. She got tired when she didn't sleep, sure, but it usually went away on its own once she sat down and relaxed. She wondered why they all bothered sleeping if they didn't even need to. Well, sometimes she slept and sometimes she didn't. A good third of the time, she used the hours she could have wasted being asleep to do extra things she couldn't fit in during the day, or couldn't do with the others around. Sometimes Murasa or Nue would be up as well, though she was mostly convinced they used the time for mischief. But why was she up now?

The nun shrugged a second time, saying nothing. She wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes, attempting to focus her thoughts elsewhere.

But it would not work, no matter how much she wanted to focus her mind.

"Minamitsu."

"Hmm?"

"I am not sure what I should do."

"Whaddaya mean?" Murasa asked. "About the spirit flood? The Shoutoku lady?"

Byakuren paused, rubbing a few tears of stress out of her eyes with her knuckles. "Both, yes, they're tied together, I think. I-I am not...prepared. Truly, for the first time a while...I feel I am...afraid."

Murasa frowned, rising to her feet only to plop down on her knees in front of Byakuren. "Talk t'me, Byakuren-san. I dunno what I can do for ya, being in the dark, but I really, really...hate seeing ya like this." She bit her lip, hands tightening into fists. "Did this lady do something to you? All I know is ya don't like her very much."

Byakuren shook her head fiercely. "Ah...we did not get along, to say the least. It was a very long time ago."

The ghost girl was silent, a hundred percent of her attention now focused on the nun in front of her.

"I will bring you up to speed, then. Perhaps it is best someone knows the full story."

* * *

As the sun peeked over the horizon, Kyouko Kasodani raised eagerly. "Good morning, good _mooooorning!_" she sang, not bothering to lower her volume for the sake of the others sleeping on the opposite sides of the temple's paper-thin walls. "Good morning, yes, good morning to you! Good morning to all the little boys and girls!" With a bounce in her step, she pulled off her sleeping robes, and tugged her dress on over her arms. Just as she was buttoning it up, the sliding door to her room slammed open.

Kyouko let out a high-pitched scream not unlike Byakuren's from the night before, but she did have the volume control Kyouko did not. Amplified by the sheer surprise at having someone burst into her room this early in the morning (as often as she woke up the other residents with her singing, they'd grown used to it and did not bothering stomping into her room to tell her to hush up anymore), her yell doubled in pressure two-fold, shaking the building around her, and sending the person who had pulled open the door scrambling to cover their ears.

"The hell, Kyouko!" Murasa yelled back, sticking her fingers in her ears to try and rid them of their incessant ringing. She briefly wondered what would happen if Kyouko's voice actually managed to rupture her eardrums, but quickly remembered her incorporeal physiology would most likely regenerate them. Oh well.

Kyouko clutched her hands to her chest, shaking violently. Tears silently poured out of her eyes. "C-Captain, you...you scared me, I don't..."

Murasa breathed out a little irritably. "Sorry. Just. I need to talk to ya, can ya come down to the cemetery with me for a sec?"

The yamabiko tilted her head, her mouth opening in a curious O. "The cemetery? I have chores, Captain, but if it's serious you can talk to anesan-"

"They can wait. And I-I can't," Murasa grumbled, glancing behind herself as if to make sure that merely saying Byakuren's nickname wouldn't make her materialize. "She's stressed out enough right now, she can't know about this. Look-how much do ya know about the spirits that were in the yard last night?"

Kyouko clapped her hands together in joy. "Oh, the spirits! They're divine spirits, shinrei! ...I think that's what Ichi-nee said..."

Bouncing on the balls of her heels impatiently, Murasa scowled. "Ya have a lot to catch up on. Just-look, come ta'the cemetery with me. This is important. I'm not fuckin' kiddin'." She paused, then added, "it's both a'ya I need to talk with, you and Ichirin. I told her about this last night, so she's already...just-hurry up, Kyouko."

The little green-haired girl wrung her hands together nervously. She didn't like going behind Byakuren's back, even if it was serious, like Murasa had just said. It just felt _wrong_ to go behind the back of the woman who had done so much for her, helped her out so very much, gave her a home and a new purpose...! Stalling, Kyouko bent down to secure the last two buttons at the bottom of her dress. "Is this some kind of joke, Captain? Like, another prank on the new girl...?" she mumbled tentatively, her voice semi-muffled by the dress's fabric.

"No, it's _not!_ C'mon, we don't have a lot of time," Murasa replied, sticking a hand on her hip.

Kyouko folded her hands together, looking at Murasa with just the tiniest bit of doubt. "O-Okay, but...why me? You have Ichi-nee to help you with...whatever this is, right...?"

Murasa didn't answer, and instead left Kyouko's room, flying out faster than her normal speed. Kyouko sputtered wildly for a few seconds before lifting up off the ground herself, and gliding after Murasa, shouting for her to stop and wait. Murasa didn't listen, instead vaulting over the stone temple gate like an Olympic runner. Kyouko sighed, drifting up to the wall. Stepping onto the thick stone, she glanced at the quiet temple behind her. No one was up. She was pretty sure Shou was drunk last night, so she wouldn't be up for a while, sleeping off another nasty hangover. Nazrin was at her cottage a way's away, as usual. Ichirin was probably waiting at the cemetery, like Murasa tried to say. Nue was off visiting her friend in Sado. But where was Byakuren? Was she still sleeping? Granted, Kyouko did get up the earliest out of all of them, but Byakuren was usually a close second. With just a bit of uncertainty, Kyouko lept off the gate into the air, using the momentum to her advantage. Within ten seconds, she'd caught up with Murasa, who was them speeding up the stone path that led up to the Myouren temple's cemetery.

For a few moments, all was silent. The wind against their bodies whipped Kyouko's baggy ears back and forth, and she reached up to pin them to the sides of her head, scowling just a bit. Everything was a blur. The path up to the cemetery wasn't too long, but it was at least farther normal shouting distance. But to her, it seemed longer. As the stones below their floating feet began to seem more and more worn, a sense of dread welled up in Kyouko's stomach. She didn't get feelings like this often. Perhaps she was too young; that's what everyone told her when she couldn't properly grasp serious situations. But this was not the case now. She didn't know whether to be thankful or terrified. She whimpered slightly as something inside of her just screamed _this is wrong! stop! go back! everything is wrong here!_

When Murasa's pace finally slowed down, the cemetery gates were in view. And...what was that? Movement? Kyouko squinted, trying to get a better look. "What is...?"

The ghost and the yamabiko hit the grass in tandem with one another. Kyouko hurried in front of Murasa, her desire to find the source of the movement overriding her need to stick with whatever plan the other girl had. She almost immediately wished she hadn't. Kyouko was no poet, but the dread around her was practically palpable at that point; it was like a dark shadow wrapping its arms around her from behind, gathering her up, smothering her, cutting off her breath-

"Jiangshii," Murasa said with disgust, coming up next to her. "Whole hoard of 'em."

Kyouko clamped her hands over her mouth, slowly backing up until she was fully behind Murasa. "Wh...why..."

Corpses littered the cemetery. Some hopped around nonchalantly and chattered indistinctly, others rooted themselves in spot. All of them had pale, clammy skin and greasy hair that fell over their glossed-out eyes. Over half of the graves around them were dug up, bare caskets visible.

"Because whoever's working with Toyosatomimi is a sick bastard," Murasa replied, striding into the heart of the cemetery, not bothering to fly. Not wanting to be left behind with a gaggle of jiangshii, Kyouko scurried along with her.

"Toyosatomimi?" Kyouko asked quietly, clinging to Murasa's sleeve.

"Toyosatomimi no Miko," Murasa replied, not bothering to conceal the pure contempt in her voice. "Also known as Prince Shoutoku. Lived in the Asuka era in the Outside World."

"Prince Shoutoku?" Kyouko asked. "That name sounds kinda familiar."

"Should. She was a political figure, served under Empress Suiko. She turned out t'be one of the biggest factors in making Buddhism more widespread in Japan."

Kyouko frowned. "But...that's good, right?"

"I dunno," Murasa said. "Should. She seems...squeaky clean, at least from what that Kamishiro lady in the human village says-Kyouko, don't ever ask her for a history lesson, she'll keep you there for hours. But-Byakuren-san doesn't like Toyosatomimi. She says they butted heads more than once when both of 'em were in the Outside World. Byakuren-san...called her a monster. A traitor."

It wasn't often that Byakuren got rid of her standard smiling face, her almost blissful ignorance of the going-ons she forbade in the temple. Kyouko had never seen her angry, come to think of it. Irritated, yes, but even that didn't last long. Was Byakuren...was she angry with this woman? To call her a monster, when most of the temple residents, and she herself, were technically monsters themselves...

"What does this have to do with the divine spirits, Captain? And all these jiangshii?" Kyouko asked.

"Well, Toyosatomimi went and made herself comatose, turned herself and a few of her buddies into shikaisen, all the way back before we got stuck in Makai." Murasa scratched her head as she scanned the graves around them, searching for one in particular. "They got sealed up in a mausoleum, stayed in the Outside World until the humans were all 'nah, she probably never even existed' and it got booted here to Gensokyo." Murasa stopped abruptly, causing Kyouko to bump into her. She turned slightly, and gave one of the most dangerous smiles the younger girl had ever seen. "Guess what land the temple was built on top of."

"_Howawa!_ Captain, a-are you serious? T-The temple is...built on top of this woman's mausoleum?" Kyouko pulled at her furry ears, shaking slightly. "But would anesan...? She...she spoke with those two gods at the top of the mountain, right? She picked out that spot specifically, she told me that..."

"Exactly," Murasa said, putting a hand on Kyouko's back, ushering her further and further into the cemetery. "When she heard it was here, she wanted t'keep an eye on it, make sure Toyosatomimi never woke up again. Guess it kinda backfired, since Toyosatomimi is waking up, oh, right now."

The two girls rounded a sharp corner, heading up a small hill into an enclave surrounded by thick trees. The path was much cleaner, here, the stonework immaculate and free of weeds. Kyouko knew it well as the resting place of a certain other member of the Hijiri family. She was there when Byakuren busied herself searching for Myouren's remains, having buried them herself in the Outside World when he passed away. She often heard the nun chastising herself for trying to retrieve "what ought to be just a mere pile of bones by now, if even that. I mean, it is not my brother anymore, just what's left of him." But Kyouko, nor any of the other temple members could bring themselves to blame her for looking. Earthly desires or not, it was Myouren. Alas, she was not able to find the remains herself, and as such went to the one person who was able to freely travel to the Outside World-Yukari, the border youkai. Kyouko wasn't sure what kind of conversation they had, and she didn't know if she wanted to. She hadn't ever met the parasol-toting woman in person, but knew of her tricky nature. Byakuren must have given her something in return for for the retrieval of Myouren's bones, because when the former returned to the temple, she had a small, sharp bundle in her arms.

She buried the few remaining bones of her beloved brother by herself, digging the hole and cleaning the area without the use of her magic. She enlisted the help of a local youkai who was handy with stone to make a simple tombstone for the grave. It read, "Hijiri, M" with a small carving of the wheel of Dharma underneath.

And there it was, though not as solitary as usual. In front of it stood Ichirin and Unzan. Ichirin's arms were spread wide, her lips moving impossibly fast to compete with the cloudy swirl surrounding Myouren's headstone. Ichirin seemed too involved in whatever spell she was reciting to notice the arrival of Murasa and Kyouko, but Unzan gave a low grunt of acknowledgement. After a few more moments of chanting, the swirl slowed down significantly, though it did not disappear. Ichirin crackled her knuckles and yawned. "Hey Murasa."

"Everything okay here?" Murasa asked, poking at Myouren's headstone and yanking it back quickly when it seemed like her finger was burnt by its touch.

"Yeah, don't do that," Ichirin said, pulling down her hood and running a hand through her hair. "It's ninety-percent spirit proof now. Unfortunately, that also includes Murasa-proof, because the definition of 'spirit' these spells have is a lot broader than ours."

Murasa stuck her tongue out at the younger nun, and promptly sucked on her scorched fingertip. "What about Taoist-proof? Please tell me there's a spell for that."

Ichirin snorted. "I'm working on that. If it's any comfort, no more jiangshii have popped up since you left." Unzan seemed to emit a grumble in confirmation.

Kyouko cleared her throat, and the three of them turned to her. She gathered the fabric of her dress up in her hands, wishing she had the comfort of her broom to latch onto.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kyouko-chan," she apologized. "I didn't see you there. But, good, you're here! We're gonna need your help."

"For what?" she barked, a little angry. "What is this all about? What's going on? What's wrong with anesan and why can't we tell her we're...helping her? We _are_ helping her, right? And why are you guys talking about Taoists?"

Ichirin put her hands on Kyouko's shoulders. "Yes. We'll tell you everything you need to know. I'm sorry, Murasa must have barged into your room the second you woke up. But this is very urgent."

Kyouko puffed out her cheeks in an attempt to look frightening, but she only succeeded in looking cute. Ichirin decided not to comment on it.

"Buddhist monks put a seal on her mausoleum after she was down for a while," Murasa said, continuing where she had left off. "So even if she wanted to wake up sooner, she couldn't. She had'ta wait 'till someone or something made the seal come undone."

Ichirin's expression narrowed into a frown. "If what anesan told Murasa is all correct, we believe the intense use of magic and constant faith broke the already-weakening seals. Toyosatomimi and her cohorts waking up is inevitable. Now we must do as much damage control as possible. Anesan seems hell-bent on managing this herself, but she can't. This is where you come in, Kyouko-chan. We need you to help us guard the cemetery and entrance to the mausoleum."

* * *

_Author Note: Hello. Sorry for the big time gap in between updates. Hopefully I'll be updating this on a more regular basis now. Chapters will also probably be longer, like this one. Yeesh, this was bigger than the previous two ones put together._

_I've done a fair bit of research, but if there are any glaring errors in actual history, or Touhou lore, do let me know. I wasn't sure of the timelines with Byakuren and Miko, so I did some guessing based on their ages. Thank you for reading._


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